We’ve made it to our apartment in Dijon, settled in, and now we’re heading out on our first walk to check out the town. Our street dead-ends into an intriguing little passageway, so we walked over to take a closer look. We went in. When we came out on the other side, we were standing in front of a huge building known as the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy. Wow – It is one impressive building!
Place de la Libération
There’s a big, wide-open semi-circular area in front of the palace. Cafés with outdoor tables under big umbrellas line the space. Fountains embedded in the ground shoot streams of water up into the air. People sit under the umbrellas, look at the palace, watch kids playing in the fountains, and watch the world go by.
The Dukes’ palace is really impressive. The Dukes of Burgundy, (at least some of them), were famous for having lavish parties and whooping it up whenever they had the chance. Eventually, Burgundy got the reputation of being a good place to be if you liked to live it up.
We walked past the palace and onto the main pedestrian-only thoroughfare through downtown Dijon. It’s a beautiful street with shops and stores. Flags were flying up high on both sides of the street, giving the place a regal look.
Mustard, (of Course!)
On one prominent corner we saw our first mustard shop. Well, we are in Dijon, after all. But it turns out that not very much mustard is actually made in Dijon these days. To local folks, the whole mustard thing is kind of funny. One guy asked us, “You know where the mustard seeds for the little bit of mustard that is made in Dijon come from?”
“No, where?”
“Canada! Honh honh!”
A lot of mustard used to be made here, though. Sometime back in the 19th century a mustard maker here in Dijon tweaked the standard recipe. The new recipe caught on, big time. The result eventually became known as “Dijon” mustard.
Meanwhile, a couple of other guys in Dijon, a certain Monsieur Grey and a certain Monsieur Poupon, went into the mustard business together. They would make mustard using Monsieur Grey’s newly-invented mustard-making machine. Apparently, the resulting mustard was far better than any that most people had ever tasted and, well, you know the rest of the story.
Rue de la Liberté
We kept on walking down the big pedestrian street, (Rue de la Liberté). Modern, classical French, and medieval-looking architectural styles are mixed in together. Quite a few buildings have been built in the “half-timbered” style, where plaster walls fill the spaces between large wooden cross-beams. They’re really neat-looking.
Some buildings have turrets as if they’re little castles. Others had multi-colored tile roofs, which is something Burgundy is known for. Back in the day, someone in this area had the idea to make roofing tiles, then glaze them like pottery in different colors. Then, when they’d assemble the roof, they’d arrange the tiles in geometric designs . Quite a few buildings around here have ‘em. They’re beautiful.
All of this neat old architecture taken together gives the town sort of a fairly tale feel. It’s surprising that so many of these old buildings have survived, because Dijon has been through a lot of rough times over the years. Quite a few people around here believe they know how the buildings were saved.
Miraculous Dijon?
The first time was way back in the year 1513. Back then, the French, Italians, and Swiss were fighting each other over one thing or another all the time. In early September of that year, the Swiss army amassed more than 40,000 men just outside of Dijon and began to lay siege to the city. Things didn’t look good for the 6,000-or-so folks inside.
A church called Notre Dame de Dijon stood inside the city walls. (It’s still here). The church housed an ancient wooden statue of the Virgin Mary called the Black Madonna. On September 11th, the people of Dijon carried the Black Madonna around the city streets while praying for Dijon to be spared. Two days later, the Swiss army just up and left. Coincidence? Who knows?
On another occasion, this time during World War II, the German army had successfully invaded France and had been occupying Dijon for years. In September of 1944, Allied forces had worked their way up from the south and were closing in on the Dijon area. It looked like things were about to get ugly.
On September 10th, the bishop of Notre Dame de Dijon held a ceremony centered on the Black Madonna. He prayed for Dijon to be protected from further harm. The next day, September 11th, the Germans just packed up and left. Allied forces arrived within days. September 11th again. Hmmmm. Aw, they were gonna leave anyway, eh? Or not!
Fortunately, Dijon wasn’t destroyed by Allied bombs, either. The city wasn’t bombed at all during World War II. Not so for the Dijon air field, though. Allied B-17’s bombed it after the Germans had taken it over.
To be continued…
For related information for travelers, please see the Dijon section of the Travel Notes, Burgundy page.
